Working late tonight, so I saw today/tomorrow as a perfect opportunity to pull a 36-hour fast. Easy to do at work since all they have to offer are generic, unappealing snack bags (ew), soda (blah) and tea (hooray!).

I typically fast for around 17-19 hours daily as part of my IF routine, and occasionally break that keep my body from adapting too much. However, I do like to throw in a full 24 or 36 hour fast to really kick my body into survival mode. Sometimes our caveman-ancestors had to go well beyond that during lean periods.

Our bodies actually operate quite well (not just surviving, but actively performing) in a fasted state. GH rises as does insulin-sensitivity, and your body starts burning fat and glycogon reserves inbetween your muscles. While you don’t want to push this too far, your body will actually begin to more efficient utilize those value stores of energy in your muscles in the future. This can often explain why fat people often feel the need to replenish more often than athletes who don’t carb-reload 5x daily. Their bodies can draw on easy to metabolize energy more efficiently, as opposed to others who use it up to quickly, then need to resort to fat deposits which require more energy from your body to break down. To geeked out.. I digress.

My body feels energetic during the fast and responds well to replenishment soon after. The trick is to drink water and occasionally eat small amounts of raw berries or veggies (even hungry paleos could forage) to keep the enzyme count up, then approach your break-fast with a light salad and other live veggies to get the engine warmed up.

Then, after a few minutes you’re ready to eat until satiety. This is can be tough for people like me who eat until they get a letter of Cease and Desist from UNICEF for further postponing their 2015 target to eradicate youth hunger! So I tend to rely on the advise of Ori Hofmekler of The Warrior Diet, stating that you’ve reach satiety or are close to once your thirst outweighs your desire to eat.

Doesn’t always work, as I love food enough to drink water, then continue my quest to remain part of the problem 😉 But I’m getting much better. Making smaller meals helps. While being Paleo or .. a warrior (?) .. doesn’t mean calorie restriction, it does mean eating only to a point where you feel just right. So if I genuinely feel I need more.. I need to need more enough to MAKE more.

Anyways.. a 24 hour fast doesn’t drop me off at a convenient time to eat (still at work), assuming this is likely jumping off from my last supper. Soooo, I have a decent breakfast early in the morning (6-7am) like Bacon & Eggs, which I did today, then simply wait the roughly 36 hours until dinner the next day.

Once I get home tonight, I’ll set about making a simple rub for small Grass-fed Beef Brisket I bought on Monday. Should make for a good (part of my..) breakFEAST on Thursday night. Hope the fasting at 2 or 3ish tomorrow feels as easy as it is right now.

Also, I’m going to do a weigh-in for progress-sake on Saturday or Sunday this weekend.

Advertisements

Like this:

LikeLoading...

Related

About Primal Pig

“Let food be your medicine, and medicine be your food.” -Hippocrates
I'm 28 years old, living in Boston. I studied international business and culinary arts. I try to incorporate my experience abroad, nutritional research and ancient culinary traditions in my life. I'm not trying to change the world, but I'm taking charge of how I make my way through.
Interested in paleo / primal living, or just tired of convention wisdom? Go ahead and question away.. many people don't have enough questions! Too many "whatever you say" answers, accepting "experts" regurgitated "knowledge". If you're curious about other nutritional / lifestyle options, let me know. If I don't know exactly what you need, I can at least point you in the right direction.